Playing "against" can be a costly game for me. So when I find "my houghts" wanting to go against the trend, and I can't seem to bring myself to get on board and go with the current trend (for whatever psychological reason of the moment) I will usually choose to stay in cash, rather than trade "against".
Sometimes a good run beats a bad stand. Sometimes being in cash beats blurry decision making. It is true, that I have to be in to win. It is also true that it doesn't cost me much to watch. Sure, I can see missed opportunities. I can also see missed losing trades. I think that I tend to focus more on the missed opts. But it's just a game!
So I am not interested in beating other traders. I am interested in finding out which side of the market is most likely to dominate the other for the next few minutes (that could turn into much more) and put on a trade in the direction of the majority. I don't really care how sharp that group's pencils are. I only care about whether or not they are willing to spend huge sums of their money to keep their trend going.
I am currently a very small time trader that is only looking for a seat on the bus that is moving in the dominate direction at the time and the back seat is fine by me. When the bus turns around(insert your confirmation criteria here) I like to get off then and there (if I'm not allready off).
Me caring about the absurdity of the masses has cost me more oppurtunity than I care to mention and my opinions about what I believe to be absurdity of the masses has cost me more on losing trades than I care to mention. These days I just try to tell myself that "trading what I think" is folly, that I don't really know anything and that if the masses are heading in x direction then maybe I should go for the ride.
I leave the war to the warriors. (those with enough size to make a difference) I just look for the biggest warrior's footprints and run along behind him.

If he starts having a bad stand then I try to make a good run!
Just call me plum-tag-along
